People in the News for January 9, 1998

Friday, Jan. 9, 1998 | 9:36 a.m.

Let another set of proceedings against director Steven Spielberg begin. Hot on the heels of a recent lawsuit that accused him of plagiarizing his film "Amistad," trial proceedings are set to begin Monday in a suit which has Spielberg, author Michael Crichton and both Warner Brothers and Universal Studios plagiarizing their 1996 hit film "Twister." St. Louis screenwriter Stephen Kessler contends the film is based on his script, "Catch the Wind," which he maintains that he and his agent personally delivered in 1989 to an agency representing Spielberg, Crichton and his wife, who wrote "Twister" with him, as well as the two studios. Kessler says he had no idea that his ideas were being stolen until a friend called to congratulate him on selling his script. Meanwhile, Crichton says he's never heard of Kessler or his script. Apparently, the accusations are nothing new for the author, who told The New York Times News Service Thursday that he's been accused of stealing ideas for almost all of his movie scripts since his "Andromeda Strain" of 1969. Defense lawyers said Crichton was expected to testify during the month-long trial and that Spielberg, who executive produced "Twister," may also take the stand.

Atta boy!

So what kind of kid was Quentin Tarantino? Creepy, apparently. "Every Mother's Day ... he used to write me a story where I would die, and then he would write about how badly he felt about my death," the director's mother, Connie Zastoupil, says in the February issue of Details magazine. "The only way he could tell me he loved me was by killing me off." Like any good mom, she claims to be the "Jackie Brown" director's biggest fan, and gets aggravated when women pan his work. "I'll say, 'Well, if you had an attention span and saw one, you probably wouldn't believe it."

He is outta there!

Here's a weekend update: Norm MacDonald is history as the wise-guy anchor on "Saturday Night Live," replaced by fellow "SNL"-er Colin Quinn. The comedy news anchorman says he got fired from the show's "Weekend Update" segment for not being funny enough. Go figure! He broke the bad news on Wednesday on "Late Night with David Letterman," saying that NBC West Coast President Don Ohlmeyer had done the dirty work. "So, he goes, 'Oh yeah, I'm firing you from the show,' " MacDonald said. "And I said, 'Why is that, now?' And he goes, 'Oh, you're not funny.' And I said, 'Holy Lord, that's even worse news!' " But all is not lost: Mac Donald will still appear in other SNL sketches. But he added: "I stink in those." That's the spirit, Norm.

Compiled by Lisa Ferguson